Jenny Owen Youngs

Mixing perceptiveness, playfulness, and earnestness, the tuneful adult alternative musings of Jenny Owen Youngs fall into the spectrum of bright singer/songwriter pop and atmospheric indie folk. She emerged as a member of the New York anti-folk scene of the 2000s alongside fellow SUNY Purchase alumni including Regina Spektor, with whom she toured with material from her self-released 2005 debut album, Batten the Hatches. It featured the TV-licensing breakthrough “Fuck Was I,” leading to the Nettwerk label release of her second album, Transmitter Failure, in 2009. The self-released An Unwavering Band of Light appeared in 2012 and was followed by a highly collaborative period in Los Angeles, where she co-wrote songs for the likes of Pitbull and Panic! At the Disco and released a series of projects with singer/songwriter John Mark Nelson. Yep Roc signed on for Youngs’ eventual solo full-length return, 2023′s Avalanche. It included co-writes with the likes of S. Carey and the Antlers’ Peter Silberman, among others.
Raised in Newton, New Jersey, Youngs first picked up the guitar at the age of 14. She later attended the music program at the State University of New York at Purchase, enrolling at a time when the previously obscure art school was populating what would become the New York anti-folk scene: besides Youngs and friend Regina Spektor, Jeffrey Lewis, Langhorne Slim, and the Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green and Kimya Dawson were all SUNY Purchase graduates.
Spektor chose Youngs as her opening act on the tours following her 2003 breakthrough album, Soviet Kitsch, as Youngs wrote and recorded her own debut album, 2005′s self-released Batten the Hatches. Although the LP garnered generally positive reviews, it attracted little notice until one of its highlights, the rueful “Fuck Was I,” was used in the second-season opener of the popular Showtime dark comedy Weeds. That led to a record deal with Nettwerk Records, which released a remixed and repackaged version of Batten the Hatches in March 2007, the same month the label delivered Youngs’ Take Off All Your Clothes EP, which compiled odds and ends including multiple versions of “Fuck I Was,” a live track, and a folk-rock cover of Nelly’s “Hot in Herre.”
Youngs returned to the road shortly thereafter, opening shows for acts like Vienna Teng and Aimee Mann while preparing material for her next album. Released in May 2009, Transmitter Failure marked the singer/songwriter’s second full-length release and proper label debut. It showcased her continued blend of bright, pop-oriented material with earnest fare and mix of acoustic and electric textures ranging from strings and ukulele to full-fledged rock band. The partly live Last Person EP followed in 2010.
After parting ways with Nettwerk, Youngs issued 2012′s An Unwavering Band of Light independently. A split EP with Jukebox the Ghost arrived a year later, and she came back with the seafaring-themed solo EP Slack Tide in early 2015. Around that time, Youngs relocated to Los Angeles and began taking writing sessions with other artists. Some of the more successful products of this period included songwriting credits on Pitbull’s “Bad Man” and Ingrid Michaelson’s “Miss America,” both released in 2016, and Panic! At the Disco’s “High Hopes” and Shungudzo’s “Come On Back,” both from the soundtrack to Fifty Shades Freed (2018). She also lent vocals to Tancred’s (aka Jess Abbott) 2018 album, Nightstand, and Chris Farren’s Born Hot, from 2019. During this time, Youngs also launched Buffering the Vampire Slayer, an episode-by-episode podcast devoted to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. Although she stayed on the indie music radar with the occasional single in the meantime, she finally offered up her first EP in five years, Night Shift, in late 2020.
Jenny Owen Youngs’ next EP, mid-2021′s Echo Mountain, was accompanied by remixes by S. Carey, Generationals, and musical kindred spirit John Mark Nelson. Later that year, she re-teamed with Nelson and Tancred on the holiday track “Fireside,” and her next EP, 2022′s It’s Dangerous to Go Alone, featured a duet with Nelson. An instrumental album of atmospheric indie folk credited to Youngs, OFFAIR: from the forest floor (OFFAIR Records/Universal Music Canada), heavily featured John Mark Nelson, with appearances from Tancred and Hrishikesh Hirway.
Experiencing divorce and finding love again both heavily inspired Youngs’ first full-length pop release in over a decade. Titled Avalanche, the album was produced by Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman, the Hold Steady) and featured songwriting collaborations with S. Carey, Peter Silberman (the Antlers), Madi Diaz, and Christian Lee Hutson. Avalanche also marked her Yep Roc label debut upon its arrival in September 2023. That year, further Youngs co-writes could be heard on albums by indie artists Joseph and Alex Lahey. ~ Marcy Donelson